Thoughts on classical music in London, on the web and beyond. By Gavin Dixon.

Thursday, 19 December 2013

András Schiff, 48 Book 2, Wigmore Hall 18.12.13

Bach:
Well tempered clavier book II

András
Schiff, piano

Wigmore
Hall 18 December 2013

András Schiff
picked up the 48 more or less where he left off with the first book at the end
of November. Now, as then, he gave a focussed but flowing account, balancing
his habitually detached touch against the legato impulse in his voice leading.
Extremes, both of tempo and dynamic, were avoided (as was the sustain pedal),
and contrast between the movements was achieved through subtle gradations of
touch and tone. This time, though, it didn’t all add up, at least in a
significant minority of the movements. And, as it turned out, the (relative)
failures proved far more revealing than the outright successes.

Schiff clearly
takes risks in live performance: even just the atmosphere that his playing
generates demonstrates that. And usually it all comes together, the gambles pay
off, and balance is achieved between the independent and concurrent forces
seemingly given free rein, until Bach’s cadential formulas intervene and bring
everything back into line. On several occasions this evening, though, that
didn’t quite happen, and suddenly all the workings in Schiff’s delicate
equations were laid bare.

Structure, it
turns out, is a subsidiary concern. That’s probably not such a surprise, as he
usually seems to be living in the moment. A fugue, for example, will start out
with a slow and deliberate statement of the theme, and then rapidly accelerate
into the development. The ending eventually imposes order, as if by some
external force. In some of the fugues this evening, the ending seemed almost
arbitrary. Schiff was so involved in the counterpoint that it seemed he wanted
to continue uninterrupted for another ten minutes, yet Bach was calling time
after just two or three. That sense of over-arching unity, that held together
the two-hour span of the First Book in November, was revealed here to be the
result more of his continual concentration and focus than on any specific
structuring of the music.

Counterpoint is
one of the most interesting features of Schiff’s Bach. He often brings in new
voices as if they’re from a completely different work. In some of the preludes,
we’ll hear a running semiquaver line in the left hand, over which a new melodic
idea is introduced in the right. But the tone, dynamic, and even tempo of the
two will be completely separate. Then, by some undisclosed magic, they will swiftly
but deftly merge them into a contrapuntal synthesis. Occasionally this evening
that didn’t happen, and Schiff found himself playing in two different styles
and at two different speeds. The only solution was to abandon both and abruptly
switch to a new texture, often at the expense of a split-second hesitation. The
effect was like listening to a recording and suddenly coming across a bad edit
between takes.

Admittedly,
these episodes were few, and in a performance that lasted almost three hours,
the sheer quantity of perfectly executed music made them a marginal concern.
But in Schiff’s traversal of the First Book, a greater consistency was
maintained, allowing him to keep the secrets of his musical magic concealed. So
what is different this time round? A charitable view might have it that Schiff
is simply taking greater risks with this Second Book, a less charitable one
that his punishing recital schedule this last month (he has been giving these Bach
marathons in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin as well as London throughout
December), is beginning to take its toll.

Or perhaps
Schiff is saving his interpretive energies for the weekend. His next appearance
will be at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday, a recital of the Diabelli and Goldberg variations
organised to mark his 60th birthday. No doubt the temptation then
will be to play it safe, but it’s unlikely Schiff will succumb. He’s a habitual
risk-taker, so expect the unexpected.

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Gavin Dixon is a writer, journalist, editor and blogger specialising in classical music. He writes reviews and articles for a number of publications and websites. Gavin has a PhD on the Symphonies of Alfred Schnittke and is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is also a member of the editorial team behind the ‘Alfred Schnittke Collected Works’ edition, which recently began publication in St Petersburg. More information on Gavin’s writing activities can be found at his website: www.gavindixon.info